Trailor trashing day 3

Bit of a scenario for day 3, we bought a permit intending to fish a river on the way up on the Friday. It was a river that we had never fished before and i was looking forward to it,  but studying  the map issued with the permit , had a scale and looking at it revealed just how small the beat was, hardly enough for a day fishing and the flat water didn't look like the  most appealing , a waste of money, but now i know not to bother it's a shame cause a lot of the river does look good but it is reserved for a syndicate of salmon anglers.

So we went back to the river we fished on Friday, this time around it was a beautiful day , in fact perhaps the first day of summer . We got permits for the same beat , and decided to do a beat as well further up the glen . So we fished the upper beat first,after  getting our permits from what i can only describe as a   hermit in the hills.

 We were straight into fish , i had a fish around the pound , Brian rose a better one amongst some he landed .

One memorable fish was one in a shallow flat tail , as i walked up the banks i thought I'd spooked him as i watched him bolt , only to settle stationary directly in line with me 20 yards off the bank, so i thought , I'd have a cast at him, i had the typical Klinkhammer, nymph NZ combo, first cast slightly short, no response, but on the second cast he swung his head left to intercept my nymph, i struck , then he went ballistic, fighting extremely hard for his size, not the biggest but he gave a enjoyable and a fulfilling experience,  just a couple of ounces short of 1 1/2lb .

 


Leapfrogging each other up the glen we caught lots more, there seemed to be full of trout all sizes from a ounce up to a pound.

 After a while we decided to go to the lower beat a few miles down the glen,

 it seems the fish are of a better stamp down there. First cast Brian hooked up and landed a fish just over the pound!

That though was the last of the action, as promising as it looked the fish just didn't seem to be feeding , quite a contrast from the ones up the glen. We decided to head home , the drama wasn't finished though unfortunately just  a couple of miles from home Brian's  car broke down ,probably the only blessing was it didnt happen out in the wilds,  turns out it's the timing belt. Apart from the unfortunate outcome, we had a great trip, hope to do some more of it again soon!

Trailer trashing day 2

Woke up  7:30 am eased into the morning , went and bought our dinner, a indian to accompany the champions league final that was on tv later in the night. Then we went and done a recce on a loch eyeing up some pikey spots for a possible tubing trip later on in the season, then returned for some bacon rolls at the caravan to set us up for the day .

On this day we made a trip to one of my favourite rivers. We were  tackled up and  on it's banks by midday, the weather was a big improvement fronm the day before, and sure enough there was the odd sporadic riser from the offset.

It took us a bit to get into our stride  ,  but before long we had  a fish or two , i then pricked a good fish after struggling to find a suitable pattern.  

We started taking fish steady ,then whilst covering a riser , another angler started walking downstream but despite asking him to stay away from the waters edge he put down my fish walking high on the edge of the  high banks.  I guess the worst thing you can see on a river is other anglers. We then met his friend who told us he had been through all the pools . luckily though we found the lesser pools were  very productive , the bigger pools however were strangely quiet and this is where i suspect they had concentrated there efforts .

On one lesser pool we managed several fish i spotted a  huge fish only after spooking it otherwise i would have put it down as a submerged log, in retrospect it may have been a salmon?

Having missed a good few quality fish eventually one managed to stick, a nice fish  1 1/2 lb which fought really hard , (actually i think i would struggle to find harder fighting fish anywhere), fell to Brian's  rod  a fish that was sipping away on emerging olives.

the strike!!

Then another 1 1/2 lb er for me .

A couple of pools after that i hooked  a fish if i'm honest i didnt see it take , just found it attached, it immediately ran upstream taking line , we both wondedred what i'd hooked, perhaps a salmon? We decided to follow it upstream , so i got along side it where i tried to get into the side and eventually it jammed it's self under a rock. there was nothing i could do, so i asked Brian if he could grab it out from under the rock, in which he said if it gets off it's my fault. He got his hands on it then it stuggled  it then it broke the tippet. nevermind , i feel i didnt really deserve it in anycase, a fluke more than anything, but i'm told it was a fat short fish guestimated in a round the 2.5lb mark.

We fished on finding some rising fish.

But eventually we had to call it a day, the fishing had been brilliant!
Home just in time for the second half of the Chelsea v Bayern champions league , and a lamb Bhuna and a beer to accompany it, a great day all round!

Trailor Trashing

Me and  Brian just spent  3 days fishing on a few rivers , we hired a static caravan  for two nights  as our base, which was ideal, it  allowed us the freedom to fish as late as we needed , had cooking facilities , plenty  room and freedom to replicate all the necessary fly patterns we lost or required for our  days fishing .

In the Van

Day one

After checking in we headed over the winding road, to our location it was a cold day only peaking a 7C . On the plus side we did have a upstream breeze. First cast Brian hooked up a fish fishing NZ style on the nymph , must have been around 2lb,  but after a good scrap the  fish ran between his legs snagging the klinkhammer in his boots and made his bid to freedom.

A pity it got off , it looked a real beauty, but things were looking promising, a few fishless pools , i rose a good fish , and again in the next run Brian hooked a big fish which ran downstream , and again got off. Things just not quite going our way. We then took a few smaller but beautifully coloured trout.

I then managed a  better trout of 1 3/4lb beautifully spotted ,

and again in the next pool , Brian got  one of the same size.

He then hooked something that resembled something big, but again the hook came out! A few more fish fell for the klinks and nymphs, then the river changed character.

 Mainly pocket water, so it was on with the stimulators, and although no monsters, we caught a good number of them.

We even took a  table sized brace , as we had a request  to fulfill for a guy that worked at the cravan park . We finished at about 7pm a good first days fishing back to replenish the fly boxes , and enjoy a few beers and pizzas.

TBC

The good the bad and the ugly

Our usual weekend haunt looked like it might be a bit on the high side with the heavy rainfall the last day or two, so we headed north instead to one of our favourite streams which looking at the sepa river levels site was running at a good height.
On arrival i went to get our permits from the post office where the lady told me the bad news, my wife had phoned her to let me know that  i had left my waders in the kitchen! an hour and a half away from home there was no going back, and i thought I'm just going to have to take a soaking if i want to fish and bought the permits anyway.Thankfully when i opened the boot of the car my waders were there! just no wading boots, it wasn't  such a disaster after all, Col kindly let me use his old trainers which  did the job fine and at least allowed me to fish.
Col's day got of to a good start in the first pool of the day when he landed a fine trout of 2lb 4oz on the klink

my bad start continued with me pricking a good fish, missing a few others before a real cracker swaggered up from the depths in what seemed like slow motion to take my klink, with it being so visual i struck to soon and he was gone, i was not best pleased!
We fished up through another few pools without success before i eventually got of the mark with two or three wee fellas from a favourite pool, i spotted a bigger trout rising a couple of times too and was keen to keep the disturbance of hooking the smaller trout to a minimum and bullied them in quickly before managing to put the fly over the bigger fish, he went 2lb 6 oz but wasn't the bonniest trout, looked a bit like a stocky with it's tatty fins, but rest easy the river isn't stocked and is totally wild, just an ugly trout i guess!

Another couple of wee trout on the nymphs before we got to one of the best pools on the stretch, Col went for a riser nearer the tail and i positioned myself for a riser further up the pool, Cols fish turned out to be a good one too of 2lb 8oz!

   I then hooked a trout in the head of the pool on the nymph, another fish of at least 2lb's but unfortunately he came of, at first i thought it must have been my knot but on closer inspection it was a clean cut, the trout from this river are toothy critters! never mind that's just the way my day had gone but they're there for the next time.

a love-hate relationship

It would be fair to say that my local river isn't my favourite place to fish, there are a lot of things about it which i hate.

The bank sides become an  unnavigable jumble of wader wrecking brambles especially as the season advances

not to mention all the rubbish washed down from the town upstream, everything from shopping trolleys to old bikes and  kitchen sinks.

the water quality isn't the best either with a lot of treated effluent giving the river a certain odour,not the most appealing place to fish really is it?

Having said all that i was reminded again yesterday why i still have a soft spot for this river, it's not all bad!
A Five Minute walk from my back door and i was fishing on this lovely big flat pool, and with a good  hatch  in full swing the trout were only to happy to play ball, Col's cdc shuck was deadly!

the trout fight hard

The bank sides are also colourful just now, nothing fancy but its not all brambles and hog weed.

mother Mallard and her young

I went home from the river contented , it's never going to match  the streams we fish further afield in terms of beauty but  it's has a certain something all of it's own.     

Late Lunch

We arrived  down to the river an hour earlier than last week and sure enough there was a fly or two sailing downstream, despite a threat of the odd snowflake   we sat and waited and waited  chatted about nonsense  too  kill time.

Camouflage and concealment

 Still nothing stirred, so we walked upstream , then back down again , and on the way back up  Brian  managed a wee trout, but it just wasn't happening generally, so we left for another stretch it was now 3:30pm , walking upstream we noticed the flies were coming down now in droves, Two  fish were rising , i got myself in position stuck a klink over the bigger of the two but he didn't seem to like it, i think i put them down in the end. Brian ventured upstream but there were other anglers on the water so we decided to go elsewhere.

Brian decided to try a bit a few miles upstream , and i went downstream, and arranged to meet up again at 5:45pm. it was just after 4pm.

A pool on Brians stretch

 I couldn't believe my luck a few fish rising one in particular a bit more mobile than the other two and making a  bit more displacement. I covered the area a dozen times with a klink but he wasn't having any of it , the surface of the water now was peppered with what i think were medium olives, yet it was obvious the fish were feeding on the emerger rather than the duns , so i put on a CDC complete with a shuck and a few casts later , i hooked him. After a really good   scrap i managed to net him.

Quite a long slightly lean trout that went a shade over 2lb. I bumped into a few other fish some wee ones i landed a few missed , but notably one monster ,  which i should have done better with he was going steady but nerves got the better of me. Time was getting on now so to meet Brian at 5:45pm i decided to go back up the beat, and on my way found another riser , in what was still a very good hatch. This one didn't mess around  and took my shucked emerger first time.

1lb 12oz

I then met Brian back at his car.We briefly compared notes and despite a good hatch on his stretch not a single fin stirred . Heading down the road we had a look off a bridge spotted a few sporadic rises so Brian got the waders on again and  we went to look for a steady riser.

risers

he got a brace before calling it a night a lot later than planned at 8:15pm .

 A strange day maybe the night  fishing has started or maybe the cold start delayed the hatch, whatever it seems  a hard one to call. A wee session on the vice is needed for next time  .

The new batch

Hawthorn time!

Myself and Brian managed to sneek in a wee trip on a wee burn on sunday, it was freezing , but we managed a few wee fish , mainly on nymphs though one or two did stick there nose out for a dry. I mentioned to Brian how i was hoping to see hawhorns and black gnats on the water , but i'm sure the weather stopped them hatching just a smattering of hardy olives put in a show.

Today i managed to steal a couple of hours, and today the hawthorns hatched in there millions it's just a pity the trout on my local dont seem to switch on to them as a food source prefering upwings, it's always been the way where as the wee burn we were on , on sunday are quite partial to these black beasties aptly called Bibio marci as they appear  around St.Marks day.

Back to cold weather tommorow and into the weekend. Needing some heat we have a trip north in a few weeks time!